Saina, Chetan in Syed Modi semifinals

Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand advanced to the semifinals of the Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton tournament on Friday.

Written by Press Trust of India

Read Time: 3 mins

Lucknow :

Top seeds Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand advanced to the semifinals while RMV Gurudsaidutt shocked higher ranked Indonesian Andre Kurniawan Tedjono in straight games to reach the final four in the Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton tournament here on Friday.

World number eight Saina survived a scare to pip fifth seed Fransiska Ratnasari of Indonesia 11-21, 21-4, 21-19 in a 54-minute battle and set up a semifinal clash with sixth seed Jeanine Cicognini of Switzerland, while Chetan beat sixth seed compatriot Anup Sridhar 21-18, 21-10 in just 29 minutes.

In a see-saw battle, Gurusaidutt held his nerve in crucial moments to beat Andre 21-18 21-16 in a 42 minutes to reach the semifinals, where he will meet Chetan tomorrow.

Fourth seed Aditi Mutatkar also made merry notching up a 21-12, 21-14 win over compatriot seventh seed Trupti Murgunde in 24 minutes in the women's singles.

However, it was end of road for Parupalli Kashyap, Sai Praneet B, PV Sindhu and Sikki Reddy.

Promising shuttler Sindhu took a game away from her fancied rival second seed Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia before going down 21-15, 4-21, 11-21, while Sikki lost 20-22 18-21 to sixth seed Swiss Jeanine Cicognini.

Gurusaidutt started the proceeding for India and opened up a 2-0 lead in the first game but Andre came back strongly to go 7-4 up soon.

The Indian then pocketed three straight points to draw parity at 8-all and then moved neck and neck till 17-17 before breaking loose to seal the first game.

In the decider, the Indian was more ruthless as from 2-2, he zoomed to a three point lead at 9-6 but the Indonesian soon caught hold of him at 9-9 and 12-12. Gurusaidutt soon knocked down five straight points to lead 17-12 and eventually sealed the issue as Andre's game crumbled.

Saina too had a tough match as the Indian was a game down but she held her nerves to tide over the Indonesian.

"I didn't expect the match to be so tough. I was losing some shots as I was smashing from mid-court and I was finding it easier to play from one side of the court but I pulled it off in the end," she said after the match.

"Since I have played too many tournaments this year, my fitness is also a little down but I have improved in my strokes," she added.